Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven -- set for release 10/28/16

I have a compound bow and I noticed there is no “arrow” ammunition in inventory (if ammunition was addressed already I apologize. Been awhile and haven’t had the time to read everything like I used to.) Also since its arrows is it possible for me to retrieve my arrows if I fire then skillfuly enough to where they don’t break? I may be able to craft arrows, but I’ll forever be stingy with my arrows. Apocalypse or no apocalypse!

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@JimD
I found this error in chapter 2 playing as a bank robber, I had a shotgun as a primary and a swordcane as as a secondary. My ranged weapon skill level was 4.

When I chose “Cover her body out of respect” as a bank robber the word departed is present.
However when I played as a teenager with a baseball bat and knife the word is missing.
“Though you killed the zombie, she used to be a living woman and deserves the respect of any soul that recently.”

In chapter 2 at the school I chose to kill Driver and selected “Shoot him from cover.”


Fly off
I was a teenager with ranged weapons level 2.

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@Bugreporter I’m not sure where the dependent’s father will fit in now that I redesigned the game. Likely in the chapter 5 or 6 area.

I like the idea of matching delusions to professions. I will add that to my plans.

Primo in Italian means first, which was slang for ‘the best’ when I grew up. In Philadelphia, there’s a hoagie (aka submarine sandwiches) place I like called Primo’s. So I always liked the word Prime. It’s also a generic word, like Acme, so in writing ZE:SH, I wanted a theme across businesses so characters feel they are familiar.

She’s a recurring NPC who will be met through an Epic Mission, meaning she can be met after a long series of events.

@StarshinaSokolov thanks for your thorough feedback. Your suggestions are the reason I post demos.

I have received feedback from various military people and none have given the suggestions you made (likely they didn’t focus on rank). Do you have a military background? I wand with these ranks by researching pay grades but found little to describe what rank does what role in combat. It looks like you suggest:

Infantry soldier: Staff Sergeant
Medic: Private First Class?
Commander: Captain

Balancing the game is a huge challenge, and I wanted to give two options: 1) I want to customize my character 2) I want the game to do the work and just give me a character. So I need to make characters fair and balanced across all professions while also giving players the ability to customize. All of the skills are relative. So while you may feel X profession should be higher in Y skill, the game so far uses those levels to judge degrees of success. I would need to adjust all of those if I alter starting skill points.

My intention is to give lots of skill points and as characters evolve, the game turns skills-based rather than profession-based.

All that said, your feedback is rather compelling, so I will see what can be done to increase realism and make characters more variable at the start. I still need an option for character creation for those players who don’t want to customize. I also disabled an option for complete customization since running automated tests on the code became too tricky.

Now that you say it, I need to add more variability to Jaime and the dependent.

There are going to be soooooooooooo many NPCs for which to earn friendship, I need one NPC as a writer to use as a consistent voice in this game. At this point, he’s your best friend but you can lose his friendship over time. I think if I give him some variable personality traits, it will help.

You’re right and I’ll fix it.

One thing about common mistakes and tropes–I’ve noticed in my years now of doing this that some are needed. 90% of the AKs on the market are AKMs, but AK-47 has become the general description used to describe many of the AK series rifles/copies. It’s tricky, because if I say AKM, I will have a number of people ask why there are no AK 47s in ZE:SH.

I’m not saying that to cop out. I do think realism is a priority but in choosing terms or gun types or medical or scientific jargon, I have to evoke an understanding in the reader. Also it’s time consuming to add specificity at the level I am already juggling things. Sometimes I call a 30-06 a bullet instead of a cartridge because I don’t want to have to track it.

Will do :smile:

If there are major cringe-worthy things you note when reading, please point them out, and I greatly appreciate your feedback.

@EmperorHeartless good catch!

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@JimD
Do you know how many NPC’s are able to be killed by the player in the whole game?

@JimD yes spent a few years a ground pounder and @StarshinaSokolov is pretty spot on. With that said (I haven’t yet tried the military background yet. But will soon!) For a field medic Spec 4(Specialist E-4 and Corporal E-4 are the same pay grades but the corporal is in a position of leadership as a NCO) or Sergeant. With that stated back in 92 when I left the army they were Starting to use Warrant Officers as the main leadership for primary aid before a doctor is needed.

When you say Commander I would look at you and say get your Navy out of my Army! XD Captian would be correct. For commissioned officers a 2nd lieutenant is in charge of a platoon, first lieutenants are the XO’s for the company commander which is a Captain. Majors are XO’s for Lieutenant Colonel, which runs the battalion which usually consists of 4 to five companies.

I’d say if your are using a relative age for all the potential jobs we can select I am assuming any PC would be in the age range of early 20s to early 30s (for the doctor). Which would put our guy or gal at captains rank at best Major.

With military officers, and to a smaller effect NCOs. They receive a ton of education four year degree in a college plus additional training in the military in their chosen MOS everyone has the same basic training which is 13 weeks their advance training which can vary but with an officer they would train in the basics in every sub branch of a given MOS with the infantry (s)he’d need to know about 11B 11C 11H (officers in the infantry are 11X iirc), that is your basic infanty, to your mortar guy, tow missle guy (tho they nixed that MOS in early 2000s). Then (s)he has addition train in the tactics which was 16 weeks of advance training, before they could receive their commission. NCOs and officers that want to progress higher in the ranks would have to continue their education with specialized courses. PLDC BNoC ANoC for NCOs. Not sure about what the officers went through but higher learning always continues well in the military aspect.

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This has peaked my interest… This because of how long this game will be and the mortality? Is there a limit to how many we can take in before we need to move into a bigger haven or maybe create a second haven, and communicate with one another?

By the amount of NPCs, the possibility of continuous expansion and length of it to start of with. Exodus sounds like the making of a tv series :wink:

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I’m so happy you replied, I can’t even describe it =P

Yes, I have.

I actually suggested the Medic to be a Specialist. A Private First Class would have seen little more than 1 year of service. A 68W is a “Health Care Specialist”, not a “Combat Medic”. However, they may earn the “Combat Medical Badge”, which means they provided medical support to somebody while the rest of their unit were engaged in active combat with the enemy. “Combat Medic” is less of a “Medic who kills people” and more of a “Medic who heals people while others are being killed”. However, their basic training means they know how to handle a rifle and defend themselves pretty well.

With that said, if the Medic earned the Combat Medical Patch, they’d probably earn a promotion as well. Since Private First Class is probably the lowest rank a serviceman may be deployed with, they’d be promoted to either Specialist or Corporal. A Specialist and a Corporal are of the same pay-grade, the only difference is that the Corporal is considered a Junior NCO, and received leadership training, while the Specialist is simply a highly-paid Private, and often the entry-rank for people with college-degrees who don’t want to become a CO.

All of the enlisted personnel, at least until you reach Sergeant First Class, takes part in combat. A Corporal is just a soldier who received leadership training, and became their Sergeant’s Second-in-Command. They won’t lead anyone unless their Sergeant is incapacitated of doing so. Sergeants lead Fire-Teams, groups of 4 soldiers (leader, rifleman -probably the corporal-, grenadier, and machine-gunner). Staff Sergeants lead Squads, groups of 9 soldiers (2 Fire-teams + the Staff Sergeant). Sergeant First Classes are Senior NCOs, and may be placed as Platoon Sergeants, which means they’ll be the Lieutenant’s Second-In-Command. They generally use their field experience to teach the fresh officer how not to get everybody killed with his orders. First Sergeants do the same thing at the Company level, while Master Sergeants serve as some kind of Non-Commissioned Executive Officer at the Brigade level. Command Sergeant Majors do the same thing as First Sergeants, but at the Battalion level. Sergeant Major of the Army is a rank held by only one individual at a time, and serves as the voice for ALL enlisted personnel. They speak directly to Generals and such.

Commissioned Officers on the other hand, are quite the same. They do the same things, only the size of their unit changes. 2nd Lieutenants command Platoons, 1st Lieutenants act as executive officers at the company level, Captains command Companies, Majors act as executive officers at the Battalion level, Lieutenant Colonels command Battalions, Colonels command Regiments, Brigadier Generals command Brigades, Major Generals command Divisions, Lieutenant Generals command Corps, and Generals command the entire Army. In times of war, a General may be promoted to Field Marshal, so he can command the entire allied army, not only his own country’s.

This, of course, applies to Infantry Units of the US Armed Forces. The Marines do it differently, the Air Force does it differently, and so on.

As I said, if somebody spent all their lifetime to learn half a dozen skills, I doubt they would be able to learn a dozen more right in the middle of the apocalypse. I understand how time-consuming is to mess with every profession’s attributes, and the game is certainly good as it is, so do what you think it’s best =)

As a perfectionist, it makes me kinda sad knowing there won’t be an option for me to completely customize my character. But it’s okay, though, the game is good nonetheless =P

Sadly, yes LOL But it’s cool, I understand that most people wouldn’t understand. Also, AKMs would be difficult to come by. Stick with Saigas (or possibly VEPRs) if you decide to put an AK in the game.

Nothing makes me cringe anymore, actually. Not much realism in the media today. But I’ll report if I see something else that could get on somebody else’s nerves =)

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@Bugreporter I have a dozen well-developed NPCs you haven’t seen yet, not including Lyle, Jillian, Jaime, Billie, Fred, and Sean. I am also introducing Chandra (engineer/laborer prologue) and Reilly to the group. I have 2 more NPCs from CoG’s charity event and 3 from contests. I’d say that will be close to the number of total, primary NPCs. Secondary NPCs will be too numerous to count. I may also allow Rosie and Driver to be added to your group (I’m debating it).

@Pace675 please try the military background! Thanks for confirming the military info. Any other feedback is much appreciated.

@Nathan_Faxon yes, the game will be long, and I want to make NPCs more transient, meaning, they die and move on more often. By the end of ZE, I had 7 NPCs (+1 dog) who may or may not be in your group besides the primary NPCs you met at the cathedral, and I believe people enjoyed the variability.

@StarshinaSokolov is the rank just called Specialist?

Also here’s something I researched and seems debated. If I am on the street in uniform and a higher rank than an approaching soldier, will I be saluted? Will that soldier call me sir? Do the rules/customs change while on base or in active duty?

Let’s say I’m a PFC. If I am on the street in uniform with (for example) a friend who is a high rank (say a Major), and a higher rank than me but lower than major approaches (e.g. Sergeant First Class), do I salute? Say question but it happens on base.

I have planned to add that feature back in prior to publishing part 1.

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Yes, the rank is called “Specialist”, and it’s E-4 or OR-4.

If you’re within a certain distance (15 feet, i believe, although I can’t confirm), then expect a salute. They’ll only call you “Sir” if you’re a CO. If you’re a NCO, they’ll be afraid you may reply with “Don’t call me ‘Sir’, I work for a living.” LOL

If you’re deployed, you’ll NEVER salute. This only alerts enemy Snipers that there’s a high-ranking target for them to take out. Other than that, you’ll always salute and be saluted. Minimum distance for salute is around 6 paces, and maximum is about 30 feet.

And now and happy again =P

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@JimD Woo Primo’s! I believe we’re talking about the same place. If we are I eat there whenever I visit Philly
Also the same problem for Crossbow. Now bolts shown in inventory when starting, but crafting a quiver of crossbow bolts works fine.
The 2nd sentence seems redundant. You could reword it to “Your father left a note, it says” or something like that.


It’s a crossbow so you’d need to reload it before you can fire again. Its be hard to reload it while driving not impossible, but hard so maybe add some dialogue to show that? Or having your nephew reload it if you choose the dependent challenge.

Sailing?

Would having crafting tools give a bonus to crafting or making some crafting items easier to make?

I’d imagine that while Brody is saying this he’d show some more emotion either anger and sadness. Maybe a curse word or two. He probably knew several of the students who died.

@JimD
I found this spelling error in chapter 2 at the school when attacking Driver.


I had a compound bow as a primary.
The arrow sailing.

I found this spelling mistake when fighting Dillian. I selected “Rig a trap in the lab and use it to disable Dillan.”
I had science 25%


Full of water
I found this spelling error as a con artist when I visited Darlene.

Surely up the con.
I found this error as a con artist when I selected “I grab Cindy and Darlene and rush out the back of the house.”
"You bolt from the house and vault over Marjorie who remains crouched as she feeds on Cindy. Racing around the side of the huge home, you clear a low fence and head to Aspen Street.
“Once inside, you pass straight through the room and burst from the back of the house.”

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@JimD Rosie and Driver as possible Primary NPCs? I approve this!

I’m loving how these NPCs could go at any given moment, through death or just up and leave, or even leave as a tiny group for their own reasons, but still on good terms with us. At the same time this will be heartbreaking when they do go, I may have to harden my heart :laughing:

Are you not able to retrieve the Backpack & Pistol when you search the Rancher house? my last Playthrough was with a MMA fighter & searched both houses, afterwords I checked my inventory & only had 1 backpack & no pistol so I had to finish the playthrough with the Katana.

Oh, hey. It’s me again. I was playing the demo again and had some ideas that I thought would be okay to share.

Most police officers carry Glocks, but not 17s. They either carry the 19, for easier concealment, or the 22, for the firepower. They’re 9x19mm and .40, respectively, and both have a standard capacities of 15 rounds.

Also, the overwhelming majority of police officers wear a vest while on duty. The protagonist is obviously on duty, and even the bank robber got some Kevlar, so why not? =P

Talking about the bank robber, I think that, unless they’re carrying Luparas (sawed-off double-barreled shotguns), it would be implausible for them to be walking around with them hidden inside their coats. It would make more sense if they carried duffel bags with them, both to store their shotguns and to fill with cash during the robbery. If you’re going with pump-action shotguns, they’d need to be pistol-gripped and short barreled in order to fit inside anywhere while remaining inconspicuous. Probably something cheap like Maverick 88s 5+1 with factory pistol grips and manually-shortened barrels. Or a Super Shorty. I bet they’d be using buckshot instead of slugs, though.

I was really impressed by the guns inside the duffel bag that the cop can take from the Sergeant. Sarge probably cleaned out the SWAT armory. LOL. But the M16A4 is more of an Army thing. SWAT teams usually use carbines like the CAR-15 or the M4. If anything, they use the M16A2 as marksman rifles, although M14s and Remington 700s are far more common. Also, it’s far easier to find M1s instead of M4s at the hands of the SWAT.

It would be nice to have the military characters stop by the armory before leaving the base, too. They could take a few useful items such as a helmet, a vest, and a M16A4 (probably even a M4 or M4A1, as most infantry units have been replacing their full-length rifles with carbines). The M1911A1 is more of a Marine and Delta thing. The protagonist would likely have been carrying an M9, unless I got it wrong and the pistol in their car isn’t their service one. Most likely it wasn’t, as the only .45 Colts in service are the A1 variants, and you said the pistol is a M1911.

You know what would also be cool? Grenades. The cop could get a few flash-bangs from Sarge’s bag, and the military protagonist could pick a few M67s along with the rest of their gear, if you decide to make the base’s armory an option. If you’re feeling generous, the military protagonist could also take a water canteen (similar to the camping canteen, but with a cup instead of water-purifying tablets), a military-grade First Aid Kit (with more contents than common FAKs, making it able to deal with more serious injures. Possibly only available to the Medic), and a pair of binoculars (similar to the one you find in the attic, but much more rugged and unlikely to break).

Well, that’s all that I can think of at the moment. Thanks for reading.

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I got a question and a theory here for you @JimD, they’re NPC related.

  1. After playing through every profession countless times, I created a theory that all the possible player professions exist all at the same time, the only survivor out of all those professions is of course the one we choose. Am I on the ball or no?

  2. We’re gonna come across survivors who relate to each profession available to us. E.g. Jillian and Lyle as the con artist and Brody and Madison as the teenager, Jaime seems to be a unique survivor since he doesn’t fit into any of them, only relating to the MC’s profession. Will we see a lot of survivors who each relate to the professions?

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I really hope there is a unique difference between male and female MCs that use the character customisation like a guy who lost his wife and the fMC will look the same as her no matter what look you choose and become a possible romance option and mthe same for mMC cause Jim said that there will be alot of NPCs and that sometimes cause some characters to feel lifeless and boring and I really want this game to do well :slight_smile:

@JimD
In October on Facebook you said that you were adding content for professions and location’s. Are you adding that in a future/future update(s)?

You just gave me an idea towards a good suggestion to make.

Further into then game, when we have a few survivors there could be a scene where we talk about the pre-apocalypse days and our old lives, this could be an opportunity to give our MC a few details about their backstory, maybe they have a significant other, siblings or family was out of town or at work when the zeds hit and whether they still believe they’re alive or not, talk about their friends and hobbies or a milestone that happened in their lives (if you give your character a scar, we could talk about that).

Also events like these about what you and the survivors do when they aren’t scavenging, hunting or guarding. Some gather around the table to play cards, they make a rare score of alcohol and food and decide to have a small celebration or a ‘family dinner’ like in ZE and everybody talks about random topics. These kind of events would be great bondage for the group and us as a player towards the NPC.

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I thought that this is the point of the safe haven … Meh this is a good suggestion though … Glad you said it but having the mc look like someone else’s partner might be an
interesting idea though (but prepare for the drama feast though)

Oh of course, I forgot to mention I’m quite intrigued with this idea. So this survivor is having trouble coming to terms with their lost loved one (dead or just missing) and see the MC as reminder of the good times or if we wanna go a little nutty, actually THINKS the MC is their partner?

I can imagine this as one of the tragic or bitter romances because even though the survivor will love them, the MC will probably feel like they only love them because they look like their spouse and not for themselves. If we don’t romance them the survivor could keep trying or become jealous if the MC had a romance already and this could create a side story in convincing this said survivor to let go of their past, for better or worse.

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